Monthly Archives: January 2012

I’m blogging because I am noticing that dozens of people are reading this blog on a daily and weekly basis, and I haven’t even added to it in a boat-load of time.

And sorry, but no photos this time. I’ve been trying to upload for an hour. Something’s a bit screwy in the interweb today, and my upload won’t go. So anyway, here’s the ramblings of the day…

Tell you what, sitting in my apartment for the winter-time is not what I imagined… Okay, I didn’t really think about what it was going to be like here in the winter… My other two years were in the SouthWest, and they were really kinda warm.
I think I should have just gotten a bike right off…. But it’s coming soon! January 23/4th approximately, I’ll be getting my next motorcycle which will open the roads up once again. I’m just not in the habit of using buses or even the train as much. When I know a point on the map, I want to be able to get there, not within 3 miles. It’s a different thing. So by this time next week, the roads are gonna be open again. This is certainly a happy thing. Cats here are scarce, and the more I can get mobile the happier I’ll be, for sure.

I think I’m blasted back a bit for the vacation I just took. In it was a party that reminded me of how it used to be. Man, that was something else! Two days of music, art, expensive booze, beautiful people around sharing themselves and their bliss in a most eclectic of styles. I guess I miss that a bit. The openness that can come from being surrounded by English speakers and active artists alike. That’s all right though. In the book that I’m reading about C.G. Jung, there is a discussion about a person in my place, one who has removed himself from where and what he knows on a mission for personal growth. I’ve really advanced in three particular ways since being here that I’m happy about, and I’m hopeful that they can be useful later. Even if just for pleasure. Such is. And in another realm, my writing for creative purposes has taken on a new angle. Not that I’m creating quality writing in the material, but I’m getting into writing absurd fiction. I find it’s a good exercise for expansive expression. I’m not even tying metaphor in yet. Just getting a few portions of crazy fictional tales sketched out so that I can look at them and laugh. I wonder what they’ll become. Time will tell I guess.

On the jobfront: It’s Winter-Camp time, which means no-book, just me. So I’ve been teaching the kiddies ways to talk about words. Phrasing like “How do you spell _______?” and “_________ begins/ends/rhymes with_________.” Things like that… Then there’s a board game that uses all the phrases and they can play against each other and learn at the same time (and if they land on the right squares, they can win candy which I brought back from the USA for them.)
So that’s nice. Way more relaxed than during the normal school year ~ and only half a day! That’s extra nice. So I get to go home after lunch. Works out pretty well.

I’m just glad I brought some intentional hobbies, and know how to exercise now and then. I see people around with none, and who don’t, and they’re at pains to explain the emptiness they feel. Other cats, with hobbies, have fine times. Welcome to Earth, right kids?

I keep just saying the thing about needing to be productive – I could only watch so many videos, sitting still, before my mind would turn into a vapid glutton for that. Yikes! I’ve taken a tip from an acquaintance I had the good luck to run across and perform with, Grammy Award winner Anand Bhatt, when he told me to learn how to play guitar by keeping it in hand while watching videos/tv shows etc. so that it becomes a second nature thing. I’ve used that tip to its fullest, as I often feel like I want to practice, but the redundancy blows my mind. Now, I’ll sit and play for hours while watching a film or a few shows. It’s not always the most focused of study sessions, but that’s not the point. The point is to get my fingers in the zone of having the muscle memory of going over the same things time and time again. His and the comment from Simon Clark about the Circle of 5ths and playing till my fingers bleed are the two pushes I’ve taken the best this year as far as my guitar work goes.

I had been working with Illustrator a good bit, bit I haven’t lately. That seems to have its best working home while I’m in schools. Sometimes while in a school setting, I’ll have two or three hours in a row that are free, and I have my own area, and I can sit and practice. Well that’s great, that works. Somehow, I don’t find the same groove in my own apartment. So be it. I get writing done here, and that counts for a lot.

Something that I can’t applaud enough is the project of my friend Canton Becker, who has recently designed an online project for writers, or anyone who likes the idea of a literary time capsule, and I’ve signed on as a beta-tester for the deal. What it does is it pops a question into my email’s inbox every two days, and I answer it the best I can. It goes in a lot of directions, and often I write there things that I wouldn’t otherwise. As a result, I think I’ve been writing for it a lot more than here because of the immediacy of the thing itself. You can check it out at http://www.myfutureself.com if you like.

What else is going on? Ahh! It’s the year of the Dragon this weekend! For sure, should be something. Not sure what exactly, of course, but it is the thing itself. So there’s that. Headed to Daegu to meet a friend of a friend for a drink and a smile tomorrow. It is a small world indeed.